As some of you know, my knowledge of CSS is quite limited. So, when I decide to tweak my website, things that are simple for a designer to implement can give me a hell of a time.

I thought I was headed that way when I recently decided to redesign my About page (see picture to the right). Happy to report that it didn’t happen, though. Shortcodes Ultimate did the trick!

Shortcodes Ultimate is a plugin that allows you to create things like buttons, galleries, tabs, sliders, spoilers, columns, headings, lists, boxes, quotes, pullquotes, and responsive videos in a few minutes, thanks to the magic of shortcodes.

After installing the plugin, all you have to do is click the “Insert shortcode” button above the Visual Editor in your posts. This action will bring a popup screen with a list of 50 shortcodes. Click the one you want to use and fill in the sections accordingly.

For example, here is what I did for my subscription form:

Note: I did not have to enter any information in the “Content” area at the bottom of the screen because the plugin remembered the last box I had created. As a result, the customization was also saved.

Here is another example if you want to embed a document:

As you can see, once again, the plugin remembered the last link I had used and saved it for me. To add a new document, just click the “Media manager” button or copy and paste your link in the URL box.

The shortcodes do not just work with pages, posts. You can include them in your sidebar too, thanks to a special widget. Further, they are responsive and CSS3-powered, and will not slow down your site.